GamesIndustry International reports that during UK-based children's charity SpecialEffect's February GameBlast charity gaming weekend, it managed to rake in over £120,000 in donations, surpassing last year's total by an impressive £50,000.

"We are genuinely blown away by the huge amount of support that we've had from gamers and the gaming industry all over the world," said CEO Mick Donegan.

Live in Denmark? Can't afford to pay for Bloodborne for PS4? Then give some blood instead of your hard-earned cash. An event being hosted by PlayStation Denmark and GiveBlod will let participants donate blood in exchange for a copy of the upcoming game for PS4.

There are other games donors can choose from if they like, but the organization doesn't list them in the promotional material.

To celebrate the ten year anniversary of God of War for the PS2, Sony and speed running experts Awesome Games Done Quick have teamed up for a marathon play session to benefit the AbleGamers charity. Utilizing "some of the most skilled God of War players from around the world," Awesome Games Done Quick will attempt to speed run God of War 1, 2 and 3 in less than 5 hours total. The whole affair will be broadcast on Twitch beginning March 20.

11 bit studios announced that one-hundred percent of the sales from its freshly released This War of Mine downloadable content will go to the War Child charity, which helps children in war-torn regions of the world like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, The Uganda, Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of Congo.

This War of Mine - War Child Charity DLC adds unique street art pieces into the game made by artists from all over the world into the game including M-City, Gabriel "Specter" Reese, SeaCreative, Emir Cerimovic, Fauxreel and Mateusz Waluś.

Game-related mental health awareness charity Take This will be hosting a panel discussion on knowing when to take a break from things on the Internet and in other parts of your life when they get too overwhelming.

Military focused gaming charity Operation Supply Drop has teamed up with Bionik Monkey for a major charity event for the entire month of March called Gamers March 4 Troops. Running until March 31st, and available exclusively through gmft.bionikmonkey.com, supporters can help the Operation Supply Drop cause by purchasing a Limited Edition Flex-Fit Operation Supply Drop Tactical Hat.

SpecialEffect's GameBlast charity gaming marathon weekend now has garnered £80,000 in pledged donations, according to Games Industry International. That is a substantial improvement from the money raised at last year's event - £70,000. In case you didn't know, the UK-based charity helps people with physical disabilities by providing support and special equipment to enable them to play games.

Today marks the official launch of the Life.Love. Game Design Challenge. The first event was created and launched in 2008 by Jennifer Ann's Group, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and finding ways to prevent teen dating violence. The Life.Love. Game Design Challenge is open to everyone in the world and coincides with the month of February being National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.

Reddit announced today that it will donate ten percent of its income from 2014 to charity and it is letting the community choose which ten charities deserve to get the money. Reddit earned around $8,276,594.93 in 2014, which means that it will donate $827,659.49 to ten charities, or $82,765.95 each.

If you have a favorite charity you'd like to see get this money, then we urge you to hit the Reddit blog for more details on how you can participate.

It looks like that $129,000 bidder for the very first limited edition 20th anniversary PlayStation 4 has gone south. According to Famitsu, the highest bidder on the auction for the special limited edition system has backed out. The auction, put on by Sony in January, was meant to raise funds for the Save The Children Japan charity.

Game-related charity Get-Well Gamers Foundation and indie developer Coffee Stain Studios have teamed up to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year and to raise funds for charity. Beginning February 19 through the end of the year (the year of Goat), everyone who donates $5 to Get-Well Gamers Foundation or makes equivalent purchase on eBay gets a free copy of the PC version of Goat Simulator, the odd and popular game from Coffee Stain Studios that allows players to experience life as a goat.

Blizzard announced that sales of the World of Warcraft in-game pet Argi generated $1.9 million for charity. The digital sale of this cute little World of Warcraft pet ended on December 31. It let WoW players buy the pet for a $10 donation to the Red Cross. The money generated will be used to fight against Ebola on the African continent.

"The community embraced this cute little intergalactic nibbler, helping out a great cause in the process," Blizzard said in a Battle.net post announcing the news. "Thanks again to everyone who helped make a difference."

Awesome Games Done Quick managed to raise $1.58 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, organizers revealed today. The speed-running specialists at Games Done Quick host the Twitch-based speed run marathon in January of every year as a way to support one of its favorite causes - cancer research.

The latest Humble Bundle is all about Star Wars games! The folks at Humble Bundle have announced the Star Wars Humble Bundle, offering a total of nine games for as little over $12 (as of this writing). Pay $1 or more to get Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Star Wars: Dark Forces.

Pay more than the average price (currently at a little over $10) to get Star Wars Battlefront II, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and Star Wars Republic Commando.

Jennifer Ann's Group will be hosting a session at the Game Developers Conference next month about how video games are one of the most effective ways about raising awareness about teen dating violence and teaching prevention skills to teens and adults. The session will be led by Jennifer Ann's Group executive director Drew Crecente, whose daughter Jennifer Ann Crecente was murdered by her ex-boyfriend on February 15, 2006. Since then Crecente has been using his group - named after his daughter - to raise awareness about the deadly consequences of teen dating violence.

Players of the popular global pandemic game Plague Inc. have helped raise around $76,000 for organizations fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Back in November developer Ndemic Creations launched a campaign to raise money for charity organizations such as the Red Cross, Disaster Emergency Committee and MSF. Today, Ndemic founder James Vaughan revealed details on the money raised through the campaign by fans.

The first special Anniversary Edition PlayStation 4 off the production line has been sold in an online charity auction - ultimately raking in $128,000, or ¥15.135 million. The charity auction to benefit Save the Children Japan launched by Sony Japan officially ended over the weekend.

The system is a mighty special prize for whoever purchased it; the limited-edition Anniversary Edition PlayStation 4 console went on sale last month for $500 in very limited supply. It sold out almost immediately, with many buying the system to resell on eBay.

Double Fine front man Tim Schafer is one of several new high profile vice presidents newly appointed to help out UK charity Special Effect. The Double Fine Productions CEO and founder joins MP Tom Watson, the BBC’s Kate Russell, Mastertronic’s Andy Payne, UKIE boss Jo Twist and TIGA boss Richard Wilson in the new line-up.

Special Effect is a charity that helps disabled gamers get access to gaming by providing them with assistive technology, services, and software. The charity has been doing this since its inception in 2007.

Ultima super site Ultima Codex details the passing of Justin Eckblad, better known to the Ultima internet community as one of the first Ultima Dragons - Black Dragon. According to Internet lore, Black Dragon was the third person to join the iconic group that celebrates all things related to Richard Garriott's popular Ultima series of classic role-playing games.

RuneScape and Block 'N Load maker Jagex Games Studio announced that it will host UK-based games charity SpecialEffect’s GameBlast15 games marathon weekend on February 20th - 22nd. The event is a 24-hour gamer challenge to raise money and help enable individuals with physical disabilities play games (the charity's main goal).

Seemingly taking its cues from the Humble Bundle and The Porn Charity, the "Hump The Bundle" uses adult entertainment from participating adult entertainment partners, creates bundles of photos and videos to make money, and allows users to give to charity. And even as the site is already up and running, organizers of the Hump The Bundle are running this Indiegogo campaign to raise money for advertising - to get the word out.

Video game focused military charity Operation Supply Drop today announced the launch of its Ambassador Program. The program enlists the help of "key influencers, celebrities and well-known entertainment personalities" to raise awareness for Operation Supply Drop's mission - supporting men and women in uniform that are currently deployed for combat operations and those veterans that have previously served, many recovering or struggling with serious injuries related to their military service.

UK-based gaming-related charity GamesAid announced the appointment of a new trustee. Green Man Gaming's Tracey McGarrigan has joined the charity as a trustee. McGarrigan has been an enthusiastic participant over the years in various GamesAid efforts including taking part in a concert, a marathon and a charity bike ride across Europe.

Speed-running specialists and gaming charity Games Done Quick held a 160-hour speed-running marathon (Awesome Games Done Quick, or AGDQ) all last week in the hopes of raising at least $1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The annual marathon gaming session ran from January 4 - 10 at the Hilton Dulles Airport Hotel in Herndon, Virginia and was broadcast live on Twitch as well.

In the inaugural episode of the Take This Podcast - the official podcast for the mental health awareness organization that serves the gaming community - executive director and co-founder Russ Pitts shares the story of his realization that he was suffering from an anxiety disorder and what he finally decided to do about it.

The latest Humble Weekly Bundle brings together Mastertronic's classic and new games in one big fat package for a low, low price.

Pay $1 or more to get Montague's Mount, Blast Em!, May's Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville, The Shopkeeper, Richard & Alice, Speedball 2 HD, and The Chaos Engine. Pay more than the average price and to score Concursion, 10 Second Ninja, and two Steam Early Access titles: 0RBITALIS and Over 9000 Zombies!

Gamers with disabilities charity AbleGamers has announced its 2014 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year Award winner. The annual AbleGamers' Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year award aims to highlight excellence in accessible game design and is awarded to developers that make intentional choices to include accessibility in their games. This year the organization dedicated to helping gamers with disabilities find tools and hardware to allow them to play their favorite games chose one game above all others: Bayonetta 2.

Mental health awareness charity Take This announced today that Pete Hines, VP of Marketing and PR at Bethesda Softworks, has joined the organization's board of directors. Hines, who has been working in his current role at Bethesda Softworks (a wholly owned subsidiary of Zenimax Media) for the past 16 years, will provide input on how the organization can raise awareness of mental health issues and inform the video games industry about mental wellness preparedness training and solutions.

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Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am

Zen: Conster - Good, it's a BS law that exists to just allow hate basically. Glad people are standing up to it. Sadly it should never have passed to begin with though.03/31/2015 - 8:39am